Good grief, it’s college basketball season already . . .

College basketball season shoves off Friday night, including appearances by 10 Pac-12 teams. Best of the games are Oregon and Georgetown from Camp Humphreys in South Korea, and Colorado and Baylor in Dallas.

Both Oregon and Colorado are highly regarded — the Ducks No. 19 in AP after a Sweet 16 appearance a year ago, and Colorado picked for third in the Pac-12.

This isn’t the cheeriest story to begin the season, but I commend it to you. It’s a detailed Orange County Register piece late in October that reflects the hot water new UCLA coach Steve Alford felt in April with inaccurate comments regarding his insensitive handling of a sexual-assault case during his tenure at Iowa. Apparently, Alford came pretty close to being fired before he ever coached a game in Westwood.

With that, a quickie preview of the immediate future for the Pac-12 teams: